The Christian Life

Amen. Take your Bibles this morning,

if you will, and turn over to Joshua chapter 6, Joshua chapter

Joshua 6 · chapter mention Joshua 6 · chapter mention

6 and veteran's day. I thought that I would take you

to another battle that happened in the Bible and talk to you

about some things here. You know, Israel had finally

just crossed the Jordan. God had promised them that they

would have the, the, the land of Canaan to be their inheritance

and that they would, that all of that would be theirs.

And of course they didn't, they didn't believe.

They only two of them, Joshua and Caleb, out of the 12 spies

that went in and looked at the land of Canaan and, and only two

of them believed. And so God said, all right,

you're going to spend those 40 years in the wilderness and he

killed those 10 spies and everybody else that was above

the age of 20 and only those who were young kids.

And, and, and I mean, if they were 19 at the time that they

started the wandering in the wilderness, I mean, still by

this time, they're, they're about to hit 60 years old.

So we, you know, it wasn't all just kids that were going into

the land of Canaan. It was families and and there

was a lot of a lot of different dynamics to the whole thing, but

they finally finished up their wanderings in the wilderness.

God parted the Jordan River and they crossed on dry ground the

Jordan River and went into the land of Canaan.

In the 1st place they came to was a city called Jericho.

They prepared themselves spiritually as at least as much

as they knew how. And they had up to this point in

that section of the of the journey anyway, and follow God's

orders to the letter. And now they're ready to begin

their conquest, conquest of the promised land.

And they're, they're ready to claim for themselves the land

that God had been promising them for for many, many years in many

generations. And I can imagine how exciting

it must have been for those people to be the ones that were

actually going to be crossing into the land that God had said

that he was going to give them. You know, you think about it, I

think about this the same thing that happens to with us.

You know, God's been promising for years and years and years

that Jesus Christ is going to come back.

And we're going to be gathered together in the clouds with with

the dead in Christ that rise first.

We're going to meet the Lord in the air.

And the Bible says, so shall we ever be with the Lord?

One of these generations is going to be the one that gets to

go up in the rapture. I hope it's mine.

But you know, there's been many generations that have come along

and, and died and come along and died and come along and died.

And obviously they were not the ones that were alive on the

earth when Jesus Christ came back.

And I think that's kind of the same thing.

I mean, the anticipation, you know, one of these days, one of

these days, we're going to be the generation that gets to go

into the land that God promised. And here they finally were.

And now, just for a moment, try to put yourself into the shoes

of the average. Israelite soldier.

Most of you know the story. We're going to read different

parts of this story this morning.

But for most of these men, Jericho was the first city that

they had ever seen that was surrounded by huge walls.

I mean, they've been in the wilderness.

You know, there was there was cities there and, and they they

came across different places and some of them would have had

walls, but nothing like the city of Jericho.

It was, it must have looked like an absolute impossibility for

them to conquer this place, first place that they come into

in the land of Canaan. And by the way, many songs, even

good songs that, that have the idea that you're crossing the

Jordan River and you're going into the promised land, which is

heaven. And this is the land that God

promised to give us. The, the, the picture that we

have in the Bible is not the, the promised land is not heaven.

The promised land is a victorious Christian life

because there are no obstacles in heaven.

There are no battles to face in heaven.

There are no, there are no difficulties in heaven, but

there are in the Christian life and across the Jordan River.

And you know, they, they get saved and they enter into the

life that God's promised them. And the first thing they come up

against is the city of Jericho. I've been to the city of Jericho

and it wasn't anything like it was back in the days of the

Bible time. It's just a, just a bunch of

ruins now. But back in the day when Jericho

was was in, it's, by the way, Jericho's the oldest city in the

world. And at least that's what their

claim is. And and there's, there's,

there's good reason to believe that.

But the outer wall of Jericho, it was actually surrounded.

Jericho is actually surrounded by two massive walls, one that

was shorter and one that was taller.

The shorter wall was was 6 feet thick and about 20 feet high.

Now just just having that would be enough to to stop most

people. But then there was a guarded

passageway that was about 15 feet wide and then another wall

behind that one that was actually 12 feet thick and 30

feet high. So if you somehow made it

through the 1st wall and somehow made it past all of those guards

that were in that little opening and you got to the second wall.

Now that one was double thick and double high almost.

I mean, it's Can you imagine what Israel must have thought

when they God said, all right, this land is yours, cross the

Jordan River, go into Canaan. This is the this is what I've

been promising you. And the first thing they come to

is this. Imagine how discouraging or

disappointed it would have been for them to get there.

But how does that relate to us? Well, we're living in days of.

Of battle and spiritual struggle.

We we get saved. We crossover into what's

supposed to be a victorious Christian life and by the way,

can be a victorious Christian life.

But we're going to face some battles, we're going to face

some struggles. And we need to know how to

fight. We need to know that our God is

able to give us the victory. We need to know how to follow

him to that victory. And, and, and just in the same

way that Israel faced those mighty walls of Jericho, you and

I face walls and obstacles that, that, that are in our path and

in our lives as well. And we need to know how to

overcome them as we March toward that victory that God has

promised. Now, God already promised them

that they would have the victory in the land of Canaan.

Every part of that land of Canaan could be theirs.

God told them that it was theirs.

They just had to go in there and take it.

Now, if God made them that promise, then don't you think

that there's a way that He would make it possible for that

promise to be fulfilled? Absolutely He will.

There are things in that land that might look difficult.

There might think there. There are things in that land

that might look to be an impossibility.

There are things in that land that might look like no way we

can take these. In fact, that's what the 10 spy

said. There's giants in that land.

There's huge people over there, there's big cities.

We I don't, I just don't think we can take it right.

But God was giving it to them. And God has promised every one

of us through him a victorious Christian life.

And you come across obstacles sometimes that make it look like

no way that I can win this victory, no way that I can have

the what God has promised me that I can have.

But the battle for Jericho closely resembles our.

Christian Life. Are you going to do what God

said or not? Are you going to, are you going

to follow God toward that victory or not?

And I want to try to be an encouragement to you this

morning. Sometimes what we're told to do

doesn't make sense. If it's God's plan, though, then

He'll work it out for us. Sometimes what we see happening

doesn't make sense. I think we saw that this past

Tuesday. Doesn't make sense.

Doesn't make sense to me why God would allow all of these people

who hate him and hate everything that he has to do with to get

into office. I don't know what our what our

state is going to look like at the end of these next four

years. I don't know.

But I'll tell you this. God's in control.

He didn't forget that we were here.

He didn't lose the ability to put people in place or to take

people out of place. In fact, I just read this in

Psalm 75, verse 7 in my devotions just a couple days

Psalms 75:7

ago. But God is the judge.

He put it down one and set it up another.

They did not take him by surprise.

What happened this past week did not take him by surprise.

He is fully aware of everything that's going on in this state.

Maybe at the very least to just wake up some Christians and help

us realize that we need to stand up and fight for righteousness.

We need to stand up and fight for godliness.

But sometimes it doesn't make sense.

It's confusing because we pray and it seems as if God doesn't

answer sometimes. But there are 5 parallels that I

want to look at this morning between the battle for Jericho

and winning the victory in our Christian life.

The title of my message, if I was going to give you 1, is

simply just the Christian life, the Christian life.

There are things that we're going to face in our Christian

life and things that characterize the Christian life,

if you will, if we're going to have the victory through Christ.

And I hope it'll be a help to you this morning.

Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so

much for your goodness to us. I thank you for an opportunity

we have together around Your word.

I pray that it would be a help to us this morning.

I pray that it would be, you know what every person is

struggling with. You know what every person is?

Dealing with God, May you help us.

To have a great desire to live for you, may you help us to to

get rid of the apathy in our lives and and go forward for the

cause of Christ God, may you give us a great desire to please

you with everything we. Do in our lives and again we

thank you so much for all that you do for us in Jesus name,

Amen. First thing I want you to see is

this and go ahead and if you will, if you have a bookmark or

a marker that may be a ribbon or something, put it there in

Joshua chapter 6. We're going to be coming back to

Joshua 6 · chapter mention

that over and over and over. But got a few other verses that

I want you to jump around with me to this morning.

But I want you to see this. The Christian life is a life of

routine. The Christian life is a life of

routine. There were the Bible says this

in Joshua chapter 6, and we'll just begin in verse #1 Now

Joshua 6 · chapter mention

Jericho was straightly shut up because of the children of

Israel. None went out and none came in.

So Can you imagine being Jericho?

Obviously, we, we kind of put ourselves in the position of

being Israel. We crossed the, the Jordan River

and now we see this massive city.

There's over 2 million people that crossed the Jordan River

and they're heading toward your city.

And you know, you got some big walls.

You know, you've got some good protection, but against 2

million people that's a lot. And so Jericho closes all the

gates, gets everybody into the city, and they're waiting to see

what's going to happen. Verse 2 And the Lord said unto

Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand.

Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor.

And you shall compass the city, walk around it, all, ye men of

war, and go round about the city once.

Thus shalt thou do 6 days, and seven priests shall bear before

the ark 7 trumpets of ram's horns.

And the 7th day ye shall compass the city 7 times.

And the priests shall blow at the trumpets.

And it goes on. The Bible says that they did

that verse #13 and seven priests bearing 7 trumpets of ram's

horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually and blew

with the trumpets and the armed men went before them.

But the re reward came after the ark of the Lord, the priests

going on and blowing with the trumpets and the second day they

compass the city once and returning to the camp.

So they did 6 days and it came to.

Pass on the 7th. Day that they rose early about

the dawning of the day and compass the city after the same

manner 7 times. Only on that day they compass

the city 7 times. Now I think this is interesting.

They were to do this once every day for six days.

Walk around the walls of the city.

Now one of the things that Moses.

Had said to God over and over and over in the wilderness when

God said, let me just kill him and start over with you.

And God said no, no, no, no. I mean Moses said, said to God,

don't, don't do that. They're they're not going to

respect. They already are scared of us.

Everybody in the land of Canaan knows everything there is about

us, and they're afraid of you if you kill everybody in the

wilderness and you start with just me.

They're not going to be afraid of us when we cross the Jordan

to go into that land. So you know that Jericho had

heard about Israel and they had heard about Israel's God, and

they were afraid. I think that's one of the

reasons why they retreated back into the city, then send out the

mighty men of war to meet them as they came across.

They were. They were retreated in the city

and imagine what Jericho must have been thinking when they saw

all the nation of Israel walk up and form lines and just make a

big lap around their city. I think they were probably

scared. What are they doing?

Are they, are they, are they getting into battle positions?

What's going on? And then they all go home and

they come back the next day. OK, Now they were first day.

They must have just been scouting, trying to figure out

what they were going to do. Now here they are.

And they walk all the way around the city again.

Now, this is this is 2 million people, right?

I mean, the city of Jericho was not that big.

It was a big city. But it would have been enough

that the back of the line would have probably been meeting the

front of the line, and it would have been a a whole group of

people surrounding the entire city of Jericho.

All right, get ready, men. They're getting ready to attack.

And the line just keeps going. And they all go back to where

they came from and they do it again the third day and a fourth

day and a fifth day and 1/6 day. Could you imagine what Jericho

must have been thinking? This is ridiculous.

What are they doing? Can you imagine what the

Israelites must have been thinking?

This is ridiculous. What are we doing?

Right? And then on the 7th day they get

up early in the morning and they walk around it 7 times.

No nothing, no, no, no armor, no no weapons, no anything.

Just walking around the city, I mean both of the both Israel and

and Jericho must have been like what in the world is going on

here, right? The Israelites were just doing

what they were told. The people that were standing

there in Jericho every single day getting.

Ready to fight and they're just walking in circles.

They had just come into Canaan. Their time was very precious,

right? They had a lot to accomplish.

They had a lot to a great amount of work before them.

And yet to linger so many days around Jericho, just going in

circles, seeming to do nothing, not making any progress.

God could have caused the walls of Jericho to fall the second

they walked into the vicinity of Jericho.

He could have caused the walls to fall the first time they

walked around the city. He could have.

He could have done anything he wanted to.

He could have, he could have killed everybody in in the city

and said go in the front gate. Here's a big walled city for

you. He could have done any of those

things. But he told him to walk around

the city and keep walking around the city.

I think a a better way to say this might be to say that the

Christian life is a life of patience.

It's a life of routine, but it's it's a life of patience.

We're not going to see victories every single day of the

magnitude that we see here in Jericho.

God's promised us the victory in our Christian life.

But just like those victories have to come in God's way, they

also come in God's time. Those who serve God can afford

to wait. The walls may not fall on the

6th day and you might be getting discouraged because you don't

see movement and you don't see answers.

But wait on God. The walls are going to fall on

the 7th day, not in the way that you.

Plan, but in the way that God planned, and not in your time,

but in God's time. The problem with a lot of

Christians is that they're only willing to work and follow God

when they think success is right around the corner.

The person that only fights in the hour of evident victory is

not worthy of the name of Soldier Boy.

I tell you, it's easy to fight when everything's going your

way. It's hard to fight when it's

not. It's hard to fight when

everybody else has turned tail and run and you're the only one

left standing there. That's when it's hard to fight.

But that's when a soldier does what a soldier does.

When you stand and fight when nobody else is with you, or when

you stand and fight when it's just a small group with you,

that's when you do what a soldier does.

Oh, it's easy to fight when everybody's fighting.

It's easy to fight when everything is going your way.

It's easy to to be the one that runs into Jericho after the

walls are already down. All right, that's the easy part.

But what about being the one on the frontline, not knowing

what's going to happen, but just following and doing what God

said to do? Those who are involved in this

church know how the battle of being a small church is.

Wouldn't it be? Easy to join a church that's

already well established, it already has a beautiful

buildings, already has a full staff, already has every

ministry up and running, money to do whatever they want to do.

That would be nice. Of course, you're here in the

trenches. You're here when it's not easy.

And as we wait on God, he will bless.

I don't know what God has for us, but we're in that period

right now. The idea of the Christian life

is just a life of routine. We just put 1 foot in front of

the other. We just keep marching.

We just keep doing what God's already told us to do.

It's a life of patience because I don't know why God's waiting,

especially when it comes to this idea of a building for AI.

Don't know why God's waiting. It seems to me like he would

answer this request four years ago or three years ago or two

years ago or last year. But he hasn't.

Maybe he's just, we're just, we're just walking around the

walls. Doesn't make sense.

Maybe that's what we need to do to this place.

Just start going in circles and see what happens.

Yeah. Let everybody on Broad Street

say, what in the world are they doing?

Hey, we're just, we're just walking laps around the building

because God's going to do something.

Maybe if the walls fall down, he'll let us build a new.

One I don't know. But you see what I'm saying that

that the Christian life is just a life of routine.

All you know to do and all you should be doing is just exactly

what God's told you to do. You don't have to go make

something happen. You don't have to just charge,

you know, charge the walls of the city because why are we

doing this? This is dumb.

No, God told them to just March around the city and keep

marching around the city. That makes sense to you, but it

makes sense to him and he's looking at it from the view on

the top. All we can see is what's right

in front of us. Our Lord is a is a great example

of one who waited on God in God's timing.

In fact, one commentator said it like this, how the Savior waited

during those 30 long years ere he began his work.

Not less patiently did Christ wait after His work commenced.

He knew how to pass through the midst of wrathful men who sought

to cast Him from the brow of the hill at Nazareth on the very day

when He began His ministry. And yet.

Not to be discouraged he can endure to say, The Son of Man

hath not where to lay his head, and not only to say that, but a

feel the bitterness of such rejection as none.

But he could feel it. And yet to continue His silent

and holy service, he could bear to know that neither did his

brethren believe on him and still work.

He couldn't. He could see one apostle waiting

in weakness to deny him, and another in malice already on the

way to betray him, and then glancing back over his

apparently fruitless ministry. Say to the 11.

He that believe is on me. The works that I do shall He do

also. The greater works than these

shall He do because I go into my Father.

He could enter into the agony of Gethsemane, expire amid the

hootings of a nation who crowned their rejection of Him on

Golgotha. Pass into the darkness of the

tomb and emerging fence, say even to the disciples who had

all forsaken him and fled. Tarry ye in the city of

Jerusalem, until you be endued with power from on high.

Though despised and rejected of men, He commanded them to wait

for the promise of the Father in the very place where men would

have said failure was most apparent.

And when that promise of the Father came, they were to arise

and preach the gospel among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

The. Patience, said the Lord.

He came. He came to die.

He came to to. Not to, not to the righteous,

but to call sinners to repentance.

And he had to wait 30 years before God gave him the

permission to start that ministry.

Oh, I'm sure that at 18, I mean, think about it, at 12, he was

ready. He was he was in the Temple

discussing with the with the the chief of the rabbis, the

smartest of all at 12. Years old he was ready to go.

I'm sure at 18 he was ready. God is now the time, 2022, 2528.

God, what are you waiting on? I'm ready.

I'm ready to fulfill this ministry that you brought me to

do. And God said, no, no, just just

hang on, just keep doing. We don't know anything about

what Jesus did from the time that he was 12 until he was 30

years old. It was just a life of routine.

He just did what God told him to do day after day after day after

day. And then finally the day came

when God said, all right, now is the time you go to that little

marriage in Cana, do that miracle, turn that water into

wine. That's going to start

everything. But even then, 3 1/2 years, he

had to wait before he could fulfill the work that he was

called to do. The Christian life is just a

life of routine. It's a life of just doing what

God has called us to do day in and day out.

Psalm 37 and verse 7 says rest in the Lord and wait patiently

for him. Lamentations.

I would get you to turn over there, but it'd probably take

you too long to get there. Lamentations chapter.

Three and verse number. Six It is good that a man should

both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for

the salvation of the Lord. Someone discovered this written

on the walls of a prison camp in Nazi Germany.

I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.

I believe in love even when I don't feel it, and I believe in

God even when he is silent. Sometimes God is silent.

Sometimes we don't understand what God is doing.

But the Christian life is just a life of routine.

Just keep marching. Just keep putting 1 foot in

front of the other. It's a life of routine.

But I want you to see this as well.

The life, Christian life is a life of discipline.

Back in Joshua chapter 6 and verse #10.

Joshua 6 · chapter mention

And Joshua commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor

make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed

out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout, then shall you

shout. All the people were commanded to

be silent, not to speak a word, not to make any noise.

I think that would be very. Unsettling for the the people in

Jericho. Nobody's talking, nobody's

saying a word. No sound whatsoever except the

feet touching the ground of 2 million.

People, you know how? Hard that must have been, not to

say anything, especially for the ladies.

Now that took discipline. I didn't want to say it, but I

made myself do it. Christian life is a life of

discipline. They were not to make a sound

that that would have taken some serious discipline.

Could you imagine that? Not saying anything at all?

No, no sound, no words. I don't know how you go that

long without saying anything, right?

But they did it. They did.

It was a life of discipline, and the Christian life takes

discipline to live in a way that's pleasing to God.

Turn over to Psalm 18. See, it takes discipline to

pray. It's not easy, but it takes

discipline to pray. He commanded us to do.

It takes discipline to read your Bible.

Takes discipline to say no to temptation.

The devil is always going to to to put temptations in front of

you to to drink and to smoke and to look in what?

Look at things and watch things that you shouldn't say things

that you shouldn't go places maybe that you shouldn't.

There's always going to be temptations in front of you to

do those things. But it takes discipline to say

no to those temptations. Judges 2125.

The Bible says every man did that which was right in his own.

Eyes. That is, that's no discipline

whatsoever. That's the easy way out.

Psalm 18 and verse 25 says this. I was also upright before him.

I kept sorry, verse 23. I was also upright before him,

and I kept myself from mine iniquity.

Turn over to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6 takes

Romans 6 · chapter mention Romans 6 · chapter mention

discipline to live the Christian.

Life. Oh, and people.

Say often, I don't know what's wrong.

I'm I'm just trying so hard to be a good Christian and I can't,

I don't know why I can't be a good Christian.

But you have 0 discipline in your life.

No, no time for prayer, no time for reading your Bible, no time

for doing the things that are that are the spiritual

disciplines. But I have no problem getting on

my phone and playing for hours. No problem getting on my phone

or what and watching things for hours.

No problem sitting on the couch for three hours at a time just

watching TV. I have no problem doing that.

But I just can't find time to pray.

I can't find time to read my Bible.

I'm just so busy. There's so many things going on

in my life. Let me challenge you to

something, if that's. You and you say, I don't know.

I don't have time to pray, I don't have time to read my

Bible. I don't have time to go out

knocking on doors. I don't have time to share the

gospel. I'm just too busy.

Here's what I want you to do for one week.

Write down everything that you did for an one hour at a time.

From 8:00 to 9:00, this is what I did.

From 9:00 to 10:00, this is what I did.

From 10:00 to 11:00 this is what I did and I can.

Promise you that you're going to find that you have way more time

than you think you have. We waste a lot of time.

We waste a lot of time on things that don't even matter.

And then we say, I don't have time to pray.

I don't have time to read my Bible.

You do have time. It's just a matter of what

you're spending that time on. It's just a matter of what your

priorities are. Oh no, I the Bible is the most

important thing in my life, that God's word is the most important

thing that we have. But you'll prioritize watching

your videos over you will reading the Bible.

You'll prioritize spending time on the phone with somebody that

you want to talk to over spending time in prayer, talking

to the one that really matters. Oh, we have time.

We just don't spend. It the right way.

Romans chapter 6 and verse #12 The Bible says this.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you

should obey it in the lust thereof.

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness

unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive

from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness

unto God. If you're saved, if you're a

Christian, if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you

don't belong to yourself, you belong to Him.

And if you belong to Him, then don't.

Why would you yield yourself over to the lust of the flesh?

Why would you fulfill the lust of the flesh?

He says yield yourselves unto God as somebody that's alive

from the dead. That's you.

Could you imagine if you were given a second lease on life?

You hear from time to time about people who die on the operating

table and they're dead for 5/10/15 minutes and the doctors

are able to bring them back. You have a second chance at

life. Could you imagine what you would

do with a second chance? We have that second chance.

You were dead in your sins and you were made alive by Jesus

Christ. Why don't you live like

somebody, as the Bible says here, that's alive?

From the dead. Yield your your, yield your

members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Here's turn over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 10, just

maybe a few pages over. 2nd Corinthians chapter 10.

Think about the magnitude of this verse when we're talking

about the Christian life being a life of discipline.

Second Corinthians chapter 10 and verse #5 casting down

2 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself

against the knowledge of God. Get this.

And bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience

of Christ. Every thought to the obedience

of Christ. Could you imagine how it would

change our life if we even brought 90% of our thoughts?

Into the obedience of Christ, let alone every thought, bring

it into captivity, casting down imaginations, and every high

thing that it is exalteth itself against the knowledge of God.

What high things do you have in your life that you are exalting

above the knowledge of God? Oh, nothing, nothing.

God's first place not Not if you're saying I don't have time

to pray, I don't have time to read my.

Bible, but I'm doing all of these other things instead.

You have set those things up, imaginations, high things,

whatever you want to call it. You have set those things up in

front of God and in front of your relationship with God.

And it takes discipline to turn off the TV and go into your room

and read your Bible. Takes discipline to put your

phone down and go in there and get on your knees and have some

time with God. The Christian life is a life of

discipline. Could you imagine if some of

these Israelites, as they were marching around the wall,

started having a conversation and started laughing and joking

about all kinds of things? I don't know what would have

happened. But I know.

This. They didn't do it.

They didn't talk. There was not a sound as they

marched on the walls of Jericho. Christian life is a life of

discipline. But I want you to see this

number 3 Christian life is a life of obedience.

Verse #12 Back in Joshua chapter 6.

Joshua 6 · chapter mention

Verse #12 and Joshua rose. Early in the morning and the

priest took up the ark of the Lord, and the seven priests

bearing 7 trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord

went on continually and blew with the trumpets.

And the armed men went before them.

But the re reward came after the ark of the Lord, the priests

going on and blowing with the trumpets.

And the second day they compass the city once and returned into

the camp. So they did 6 days, and it came

to pass on the 7th day. But they rose early about the

dawning of the day and compass the city after the same manner 7

times. Only on that day they compass

the city 7 times. And it came to pass at the 7th

time. When the priest blew with the

trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout for the Lord hath

given you the city. Now could you imagine how the

Israelites must have felt following these commands?

I've mentioned it already, but by all standards, by all

military standards. This was absurd.

The scoffing of the people inside Jericho by the time they

got to the 4th, 5th, 6th day. This is the great army of

Israel. This is how they intend to take

our city, marching in circles around it.

What do they think is going to happen that randomly we're just

going to all die or something? I mean, could you imagine what I

mean? The Israelites were marching

around in silence, but I can imagine that those inside.

Jericho were not silent. I mean, maybe by the 5th, 6th,

7th day they started shouting jeers at them.

What are you doing? You think that's going to do

something? You know, kind of like the smack

talk of. War I guess.

What do you think's going to happen?

The walls are just going to fall down or something.

You're going to walk right in. Now, how absurd that marching

would have been to most of those Israelites.

I think that if, if, if the dividing of the Jordan River

that they had just walked across on dry ground had not been so

fresh on their mind, I think there probably would have been

another rebellion. But it was fresh.

They had just walked across the dry ground.

They had just seen God do this miracle, and now this is what

God's telling them to do. I think it was fresh enough on

their mind that they were willing to follow.

But the process of besieging the city in this way was exactly

adapted to accomplish the purpose that God had for the

nation of Israel. And I'll say this, God often

tries His servants by commanding things that apparently have

little to do with what He's trying to accomplish.

I say that apparently because God always has a purpose for

what He tells us to do. God was not waiting all of this

time to collect His energy to be able to knock the walls of

Jericho down. He was not waiting to gather up

His power for the destruction of the Canaanites.

He could have spoken and destroyed the city with one

word. The Lord had a more exalted war.

His battle was not with Jericho. His battle was with the hearts

of the Israelites. He was trying to see if they

were going to give in to him. He was trying to see if they

were going to surrender to him. And we go back to this idea of

patience. Sometimes God commands us to

stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, and it

doesn't make sense humanly speaking.

We think we have to get out there and make it happen instead

of waiting on God. Turn over to first Samuel

1 Samuel 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15. You think about what would have

happened if one of the. Israelites finally had enough

and said this marching is ridiculous, Decided to charge

the gates of Jericho. This is no battle strategy.

We're just walking around. I'm going toward the gates.

Who's coming with me? I guarantee you that that

soldier would have been dead and it probably would have kept the

entire nation of Israel from being able to take that city of

Jericho. First Samuel chapter 15 and

1 Samuel 15 · chapter mention

verse 22. And Samuel said, hath the Lord

is great delight and burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in

obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than

sacrificing to hearken than the Fed of Rams.

See, when the Lord is fighting for us, it's best to let all men

see that the battle is not ours, but His.

It's not my battle. I can't accomplish it in my

strength. It's best for us to obey His

commandments. John chapter 14 and verse 15

John 14 · chapter mention

says if you love me, keep my commandments.

Turn over to 1st John chapter 5. First John chapter 5, verse #1.

John 5 · chapter mention 1 John 5 · chapter mention

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God,

and everyone that loveth him, that begat loveth him also, that

is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the

children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments,

and his commandments are not grievous.

See, the Christian life is a life of routine.

It's a life of discipline. It's a life of obedience.

But I want you to see this number four.

Turn over to Hebrews Chapter 11. Christian life is a life of

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

faith. Christian life is a life of

faith. It took a lot of faith in the

part of the Israelites. It took a lot of faith in the

part of Joshua and Caleb. Could you imagine?

Joshua was a man of war. Joshua understood how to battle.

And he goes and sits down and says, God, all right, we're

getting ready to cross the Jordan River.

And I know for a fact that Jericho is the First Nation

we're going to come to. What do you want us to do?

How do you want us to take this city?

And God says March around it. One time a day for six days and

then the 7th day marched around at 7 times.

Could you imagine what Joshua must have thought?

Seriously, that's what you want us to do?

Joshua was a man of war and then the fact that he had to go to

the nation of Israel and tell him this exact same strategy

with a straight face. Most of these guys were men of.

War they were. Battle hardened they were.

They were tested. They were trained, Joshua had

probably taught them some military strategy, and now the

very first opportunity they have to really battle, he goes and he

says, all right, man, here's how we're going to do it.

Could you imagine the looks on their faces when he's telling

them that this is our battle strategy?

But the Christian life is a life of faith.

This is what God had told them to do.

Hebrews Chapter 11 and verse #30 says by faith the walls of

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Jericho fell down after they were compassed about 7 days.

Interesting. The hall of faith, we call it

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Enoch, all of these, Noah, Moses, all

of these in the hall of faith, and he mentions this by faith.

The walls of Jericho fell down. Whose faith?

To some extent it was the faith of the people.

It was the faith of Joshua and Caleb in a day when they marched

around day by day in full assurance that God was going to

do what he said He was going to do.

Turn over to Mark Chapter 11, 2nd Corinthians chapter 10, and

Mark 11 · chapter mention

verse #4 says, For the weapons of our warfare are not mighty,

are not carnal, sorry, but mighty through God to the

pulling down of strongholds. Mark Chapter 11 and verse #23.

Mark 11 · chapter mention

For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this

mountain, be thou removed, and be cast into the sea, and shall

not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things

which he said shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever

he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What

things so ever you desire when you pray, believe that you

receive them, and ye shall have them.

To the citizens of Jericho the actions of the Israelites must

have appeared incomprehensible, must have must have seen

ludicrous to them. But God's people were being

trained day by day to do exactly what God had told them to.

Do and they were doing exactly what God told them to do when

the walls came down. Let God do the work.

You just do what God told you to do.

You just trust God and then follow Him by faith, and you let

him do the. Work.

We don't have to make it happen in our own strength.

We don't have to make it happen in our own genius.

Just do what God said. Just trust that he'll do what He

said he's going to do. Any strongholds are the enemy

that seem like they would never come down with fall if only the

church would go about them in faith.

So many times we get into a spot where it doesn't look like

things are humanly possible. And so we start, we start

finagling things. We start making things into a

position where we can, we can accomplish this on our own.

Well, it doesn't seem like God's going to come through this time,

so I'm going to have to do what I can do to make it work.

And how often we get into that position where we say, wow, that

was a really smart idea on my part.

If I hadn't done that, we wouldn't have been able to

accomplish that, right? If if we hadn't decided to make

that move, then then God obviously wasn't coming through

for us. So we decided to do it and look

how it turned out. And sometimes it does turn out

all right and we start poking our chest out and saying, look

at us, look what we've accomplished.

One pastor said it this way. When God spoke all things into

being, the everlasting silence remained unbroken.

No stir was seen, no commotion felt.

The starting into life of 10,000 * 10,000 millions of angels from

the deep abyss of eternity created no noise.

The creation of millions upon millions of worlds by the Fiat

of His matchless power was done in noiselessness and peace.

You know, a lot of people think that commotion and disturbance

is what shows that work is being done.

But silence is sufficient for God.

Just wait. Just wait.

Sometimes, as we see here around Jericho, God asked his children

to believe. Just believe there's nothing but

Himself on which their faith can rest.

When his children do rest in faith, they're content to walk.

In to walk on in the same silence that the Israelites did

when we when we have that quiet faith, when we have that quiet

trust in him, just stand still and see the salvation of the

Lord. I don't need all the the motion

commotion to make it look like we're busy doing all of these

things. Just wait on the Lord.

I wanted to tell you this lastly, and we'll be done back

in Joshua chapter 6, we see that the life, the Christian life is

Joshua 6 · chapter mention

a life of routine. It's a life of discipline.

It's a life of obedience. It's a life of faith.

I want you to see this lastly can be a life of victory.

Joshua chapter 6 and verse #20 So the people shouted when the

Joshua 6 · chapter mention

priest blew with the trumpets. And it came to pass, when the

people heard the sound of the trumpet, that the people shouted

with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat.

So that the people went up into the city, every man straight

before him, and they took the city when the Bible says that

the walls fell down flat. Now there is evidence in the

city of Jericho as they've done excavations to.

Prove that those walls just fell straight in on themselves.

Enough in easy enough that the Israelites could walk straight

into the city. It wasn't like it left some

gigantic mound that they had to try to climb over.

The walls just fell down flat and they walked right into the

city and took it. Could you imagine what the what

the what those in Jericho must have thought when they heard

that rumbling start to happen and the walls start to shake and

here they are standing on the top of it with their all their

machines, all their man made armor and their man made weapons

and all of those other things and they just topple straight

over? Could you imagine what that must

have been like for them? Could you imagine what it must

have been like for Israel? We did it God's way, and look

what God did. They just ran right into the

city. The wall fell down flat,

probably killed a lot of people, the guards, the Sentinels that

were on the top of that wall, others crowded around it.

Israelites just marched right on in and took it because God said

they could turn over to Psalm 60.

See, God will do the same thing to His enemies, into the enemies

of a Christian. Not not physical enemies

necessarily, but spiritual. The God of heaven easily can,

and certainly will break down all the opposing power of his

and His Church's enemy. Psalm 60 and verse #9 Who will

bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom?

Will not thou, O God, which has cast us off, and thou, O God,

which this not go out with our armies?

Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of.

Man through God we shall do valiantly, for he it is that

shall tread down our enemies. Nobody, no one can stand before

God. Strongholds of sin, pride,

lying, disobedience, vices, wickedness, whatever it is, they

can all be broken down and they can all be defeated when we turn

to God for help. I heard about a pastor in London

whose work had had gotten to the point where by all standards had

had reached a level of great prosperity, and he was reaching

people for Christ. People were getting saved.

And he made this statement in a in a message he said with the

first church over which I was called to preside, I spent four

years in what seemed an almost fruitless ministry.

I think I preached this fervently then as I preached

now, when I prayed for God's blessing with all my heart.

I looked for success and week by week announced times at which I

would meet inquirers, but none came.

I prayed till prayer became in agony within me.

Still there were no converts. On one Sunday evening I made a

special effort to win souls to Christ.

All through the preceding week I pleaded as though I were pouring

out my very soul for a blessing on that service.

I prepared, as far as I knew how, simply with a view to

conversion. On the evening before the

service in question, I went into a field at the back of the

Chapel. And again with tears, I begot.

I besought God to save some. I gave out that I would meet in

choirs at the close of the service.

Not one came, either then or afterwards, as the fruit of that

appeal. Eight years ago I preached the

same sermon and what was then my new sphere of Labor, and 97

persons joined the church who trace their conversion to that

one discourse. He concluded by saying this.

I think that in my 4 years of fruitless labor, the Lord was

enabling me to bear present success and getting me in a fit

mind to endure the large measure of prosperity which with which

I've been cheered for these past nine years.

You know, sometimes in our Christian life we might feel

like we're not making any progress.

Sometimes in our Christian life, we might feel like we're just

walking around the walls of Jericho, pointless, not going

anywhere, just going in circles, just marching around an enemy

that's probably laughing at us and wondering what in the world

are they doing. I may feel like we're struggling

and fighting through difficulties, and it says if God

doesn't even remember who we are.

But hold on, because the Christian life is a life of

routine. It's a life of patience.

Patience in waiting for Him. It's a life of discipline,

following through and making the tough decision to just do what's

right. It's a life of obedience and

faith, trusting God enough to obey Him and that will

ultimately lead to victory. We may not see it today.

We may not see it tomorrow. We may not even see it a year

from now. But we'll see it if we stay

faithful Christian life. It's a funny thing sometimes.

Sometimes we see wonderful victories, and sometimes we just

seem like nothing's moving at all.

But we have to trust God. It's a life of faith, and we

just do what He told us to do. It's a life of obedience.

And when? We do what?

He's told us to do. It takes discipline to do those

things. It's a life of discipline, but

it's a life of routine. Just keep doing what He said He

wants us to do. Don't have to make something

happen. You don't have to get out there

and do what you want to do because God's not moving.

Just let God work. That doesn't mean we sit back

and do nothing. We work and we pray and we get

busy doing those things that God's wanting us to do.

But when nothing's happening, I don't have to go make something

happen. I just do what He told me to do.

Just keep putting 1 foot in front of the other and

eventually those walls are going to fall down.

God's going to do it though. You know what happened with

Israel and with Jericho? This is stupid.

What in the world are we doing walking in circles around this

city? But guess what?

When the walls fell down, they didn't take credit for it

because it was dumb by human standards.

It was dumb from a human perspective.

You don't knock the walls down of a city by walking around it.

You don't conquer by walking in silence around the city.

But Israel and Jericho both understood wasn't us, it was

God. And guess what happened?

For all the rest. Of the nations that they came up

against, this is the God that knocked the walls of Jericho

down. They didn't say, Oh no, this is

the nation of Israel that knocked the walls of Jericho

down. This the God that knocked down

the walls of Jericho. Because when God does it in his

time, it's very obvious that it was him.

That's what he's waiting for us to do.

Are you going to let him do it? Are you just going to keep doing

what you're supposed to do? Don't get out in front of his

timing. Just follow him.

Just let him lead. Just do what He wants to do and

He can give us the victory. And that victory is a lot

sweeter because you know, it had nothing to do with you.

It had everything to do with him.

Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so

much for your goodness to us. So thank you for the fact that

you will fight for us. But God, I pray that you'd help

us to be Christians that do it your way.

I pray that you'd help us to live lives of obedience.

I pray that you help us to live lives of faith.

I pray that you help us to live lives of discipline and patience

as we wait on you. God, where we need to make

decisions in that area this morning, may you help us.

Thank you again for all you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.

If you'd stand up your. Seats with your heads bowed and

your eyes closed. We're going to have a time of

invitation. God spoke to your heart this

morning as the piano plays you come.